Mass Effect

[Hot Heart]

OK, you didn't ask for them but here are some notes from my Soldier playthrough on Hardcore difficulty.

 

 

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- Looking good. Menus are nice. Not sure what it is, but I like 'em. Probably all the blue?

- Ha! Saved a custom face code from the character creator in ME2 and it carries over fine. HELLO HANDSOME.

- Combat is nice and...chunky? PAPOW!

- OMG. My health is not regenerating to full! AAAAAGGGH!

- That kid stuff. Total cheese. Who thought that was good?

- OK, that guy's head just exploded. Awesome.

- Think I need to baby-sit my squad a bit more. Liara is using all my medi-gel...

- I love this Mattock. I really do.

- Combat is definitely improved. One of these guys is using smoke grenades so he can't be targeted or even seen. Bastard.

- First death, should not have charged in like that...

- Goddamn, these turrets are brutal.

- STOP DYING LIARA DAMNIT

- Are you guys throwing grenades at me?! Not cool.

- Delayed in pressing the final Quarantine button (before the boss) because I was scavenging for ammo, so more Cerberus troops were dropped in on a shuttle. Dangit...

- OK, now I'm scared of this Atlas. This thing is evil. Liara dead. Garrus dead...and me, dead.

- RIGHT LET'S DO THIS! Let's...Liara dead. Oh, dang. Some medi-gel would have been handy right now. Hang in there, Garrus, we can...NO, THEY ARE SPAMMING GRENADES. DEAD.

- OK, guys, we're gonna take down these troops first, then concentrate on the big bastard. Guys? They did not follow and I got surrounded and beaten down.

- OK, guys, we're gonna take down these troops first and I will use Cryo ammo because that is probably better on these guys, then we will concentrate on the big dude. Everyone survives, plan is great success!

 

 

Overall, I am quite pleased with a lot of the changes. I can't really compare Hardcore difficulty to the earlier games but I definitely found myself thinking about tactics a lot more. I was doing a lot of manual squad-placing (can't imagine trying to manage that in real-time with Kinect) and thinking more about power and ammo usage. Everything was paced a lot faster and it felt hectic at times, but I enjoyed it. Will have to wait and see how the story goes...

 

Still undecided which class I want to play as though, might go for Infiltrator.

[Vargras]

 

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Tried Vanguard out. I AM PLEASED. Biotic Charge is back, Nova is absolutely brutal, and the heavy melee is essentially Falcon Punch. The class is downright frightening in close-combat now. I also LOVE the new skill layouts. So many choices!

 

Combat still feels a little weird, but I still have to get used to Shepard being so mobile. Seriously, it's ridiculous what you can do in combat now. AND NON-REGENERATING HEALTH? Nnngghh yes. I'm also very impressed with the enemy AI. Goddamn those smoke grenades are annoying.

 

Waiting for March 6th is gonna be so damn hard now.

 

Edited February 15, 2012 by Vargras

[TheMightyEthan]

 

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I don't like the non-regenerating health. It doesn't have to regenerate as quickly as it did in Mass Effect 2, or regenerate during combat, but I would have liked it to be like Mass Effect 1 where it would slowly regenerate over time outside of combat. That said, if one type of armor mod is some kind of medical interface then that actually could be pretty cool, I like RPG systems that make me choose between incomparables.

 

That leads to my next point which is that while I obviously can't say how it works in practice I really like the idea that the last 3 tiers of each power are mutually exclusive choices. And not just that they're choices, but that they're completely different things you're choosing between.

 

Back to the health: given that it's not fully regenerating, I like that they took the approach of a segmented health bar that regenerates in pieces unless you lose all of a piece. I'm sure there was probably some game before that used that, but the first one I played was Halo: Reach and I thought it worked really well; it does away with the complaints about regenerating health bars while always assuring you have at least some minimal amount to prevent you from getting into impossible situations. While I don't think it's the method I would have picked for this specific game, I do think it's a good middle ground between old-school health bars and the newer "stamina" approach.

 

HH: I also played as a soldier on hardcore and I didn't have a problem with either of my squadmates dying until the boss mech thing, and I didn't micromanage them at all either. They seemed to do well enough on their own staying in cover and not being stupid. I did, however (as I always do on anything above casual) turn off squad power usage though, so they only used their powers when I told them too. Let's me be have more tactical command in that regard. Singularity was fantastic for removing those goddamn riot shields.

 

[SixTwoSixFour]

 

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I don't really get why we're doing spoiler tags, but hell, I'm a sissy for peer pressure. I'll do it too.

 

@Ethan: I know that Resistance 1 did the segmented regenerating health, as did Far Cry 2. It's probably my favorite health system, a perfect intermediary between damage lasting, and still being forgiving enough that you're never just totally screwed.

 

I haven't played the demo yet- waiting for the PS3 release- but from what I'm seeing, they look like they've done a pretty good job.

 

[TCP]

Playing the demo, first thought is, Shepard clearly does live in Vancouver. Does that make him a Canuck's fan? think so.

[Strangelove]

PSN didnt update till like 9pm here, so yeah....i probably wont get to play it til tomorrow or way later tonight.

[RockyRan]

My impressions:

 

 

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So yeah, got it on PC, first impression was "this is crap", second impression after the intro mission was "eh, not THAT bad".

 

 

First mission, hoo boy. That's not a good way to start the game off at all. The only good thing I can say about that part is that they're FINALLY adding talking while moving around. Stiffly standing going back-and-forth like a Star Wars Ep1-3 movie was the worst when it came to conversations in the series. Though I hope you get to talk for extended periods of time and all.

 

Everything else, though, was pretty crap. Dialogue content is far worse I find. Cliche one-liners peppered throughout entire conversations like they were going out of style (and many of them did already...). Pacing was beyond frantic. Felt like a 14-year old kid with ADD directed the sequence. Yes yes, the earth is being invaded. That's still no reason to flail the camera. At 60FPS it's almost nauseating. And is it just me, or did the facial animation quality take a hit? What happened there? Lips barely move, faces are completely still (downgraded from "really still" in the past 2 games), there's absolutely zero emotion between all characters. Combine that with the hyperactive pacing and it looks like the game is on fast-forward.

 

 

The intro sequence was just done really sloppily. It feels like it's far too ambitious for console hardware, because I kept spotting crappy sprite models (people running away, etc.) with 3 frames of animation all over the place. Buildings in the horizon had incredibly primitive modelling, the "ashes falling" effect was hilariously bad (again, a sprite with 3 frames of animation), as was the splashes as Reapers landed in the water (again, more 3-frame sprites). Low-res textures everywhere, far more noticeable than ME2. And it might be nitpicky but it just has to be singled out: Anderson's running animation. It's like I went back in time to the PS2 days, watching him with really jerky movement as he floats/jumps around and clips into jumping animations. Watching him run around was cringe-worthy.

 

Second part of the demo fared a little better. Dialogue I still found to be crap, but the combat shone a little bit there. This is no longer RPG-ish combat, this is a full-on TPS. Me, I don't mind that, but I know a ton of people are going to be pissed about the shooting. It still feels extremely corridors-y like ME2 in terms of level design, so meh on that part. Haven't tried multiplayer yet.

 

 

I was getting ready to ragequit right after the first mission but thank god I stuck around for the second one. Felt a bit better polished, but I still have issues with how little it seems to have changed from ME2. Looks like it's going to be a collection of battles from one corridor to the next, which I'm not going to enjoy since I was anticipating them going back to the ME1 style but much more polished.

 

Can't make a final judgement about the game, of course, but I was already extremely skeptical before coming into the demo. I came out not disgusted, which I guess it's good for what it's worth, but no way am I paying premium for it. I'll get it way further down the line when I need to waste some time. I just know the story'll take a gigantic nosedive, and I've never been too big on shooters myself so I'm not in any hurry to buy it.

 

PS: Oh, and I love that they don't even give a shit about the whole heatsink thing anymore. They just said "fuck it" and call it ammo from now on.

 

Edited February 15, 2012 by RockyRan

[Maritan]

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/323/index/9234315

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It's a runtime memory cost, not a disk space issue. You need those anims for the non-combat areas... so they're going to be on disk regardless.

 

In order to support exploration in the combat areas, you'd need to have all the anims loaded in memory... so that would be things like the 8-way walks, runs, incline anims, idles, idle twitches, male/female variant overrides, eye noise... etc.

 

All in all (iirc) it came out to around 2-4MB, which is relatively significant. Also, as you've guessed, yes - I'm referring to the main game (as well as the demo).

Ha-ha!

Fucking consoles.

I'd never buy a game like that, I'll just pirate it.

[Hot Heart]

  On 2/15/2012 at 2:32 AM, TheMightyEthan said:

HH: I also played as a soldier on hardcore and I didn't have a problem with either of my squadmates dying until the boss mech thing, and I didn't micromanage them at all either. They seemed to do well enough on their own staying in cover and not being stupid. I did, however (as I always do on anything above casual) turn off squad power usage though, so they only used their powers when I told them too.

 

Yeah, they were alright for the most part, ducking and rolling too, I think I just left auto squad powers on because that's how I'd had it before. I figured I'm in the menu so damn much they probably never get a chance to use them theirselves. It was probably the bit where we split that ruined me; I ran up the stairs with Garrus but Liara didn't follow. I think you only get about 4 medi-gels total during the demo and she used two there. Pretty pleased that, during my successful attempt, I managed to defeat the Atlas without anyone dying at all. The major bonus is that you can change the difficulty at any point, it seems.

 

EDIT: And I did notice the odd issue here and there during that last fight. On one occasion it just would not let me use a power, and I wasn't in the middle of doing anything else; the thing just wouldn't highlight. And another time, I was clicking to fire but nothing was coming out of my gun (and yes, I had a full clip of ammo). Hopefully little bugs that are since gone.

 

  On 2/15/2012 at 3:07 AM, SixTwoSixFour said:

I don't really get why we're doing spoiler tags, but hell, I'm a sissy for peer pressure. I'll do it too.

 

I only used them because I was posting a long silly list, then everyone followed suit.

 

Oh, I forgot to note: I love the action hero-style slide-over-car-hood/bonnet move for vaulting cover quickly.

Edited February 15, 2012 by Hot Heart

[Maritan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMI3j8JYsi8

[TheMightyEthan]

@RockyRyan: This demo is from pre-PAX, so I'm running under the assumption that it's an old build and a lot of the animations and voice acting is just placeholder. The game only went gold on Monday, and PAX was way back in August.

[Strangelove]

I liked the demo. It didnt blow me away, but i was satisfied. i love ME2, so ME3 being so much like it pleased me. Im a vanguard too, so i really appreciated the better melee and the better running. Felt kind of like Vanquish. At this point in my life i prefer tps over rpgs, so maybe thats why i liked it so much.

[Vargras]

So am I the only one that actually liked the bits with the kid? Might have just been the Clint Mansell music, though.

[TCP]

I agree with Strangelove, nothing wrong with the demo. In fact, it was pretty awesome. There were improvements over Mass Effect 2 just like there was improvements from 1 to 2. I like the way Shepard moves around, and the melee combat is nice. Finally seeing Earth was pretty cool. I didn't notice any frame rate issues on the PS3.

[Hot Heart]

I liked it, but then I'm hoping this really is an old-build in some respects. I'm glad to see the combat felt much improved but I'm a little concerned about other aspects, without being outright upset with anything.

 

I've played it through three times now, and I'm quite liking the Engineer class; utterly dominated right up until the boss (yeah, fuck you, enemy engineers. My turrets now!). My only problem is that because the class has no special ammo types, enemies aren't quite dying after a full clip like I'd managed before with Soldier and Infiltrator. In the full game, I'm sure I'll probably be a slightly higher level (taking savegame bonuses into account) so that shouldn't be too much of a problem.

 

Oh, and for PC players, if you weren't aware, there are more graphics options in the game files. Should be in your Program Files and then Origin Games>Mass Effect 3 Demo>Binaries>MassEffect3DemoConfig. Has all the same options ME2 had. I just turned motion blur off and put anisotropic filtering up one more.

[Waldorf and Statler]

Like always Im playing as a Biotic abd bringing shooters with me.

[TheMightyEthan]

I liked it. Combat felt a bit better than ME2, which was miles better than ME1. I would have liked to see it open up more like ME1 and not be such a corridor shooter, but oh well. I neither liked nor disliked the parts with the kid.

 

Basically, I didn't have anything against any part of the demo, though I wish they had showed us the weapons and armor systems. Oh well, we should be able to get a peek at that once the multiplayer unlocks, assuming the system's the same between the two.

[Hot Heart]

I do think the game is going to have quite an emphasis on tightly-focused set-pieces. Like, wander around for a bit and then the action kicks in. They seem to have painted themselves into that corner because of the story.

 

...I'd love to be wrong though

[RockyRan]

  On 2/15/2012 at 1:48 PM, TheMightyEthan said:

@RockyRyan: This demo is from pre-PAX, so I'm running under the assumption that it's an old build and a lot of the animations and voice acting is just placeholder. The game only went gold on Monday, and PAX was way back in August.

 

I do certainly hope so. I'm not making any final decisions based on the demo obviously, but when BioWare puts this out as promotional material it's gonna dampen the first impression of quite a few people

[Vargras]

Finally managed to find a copy of this that had the music isolated, and no other sound at all.

 

I'm gonna be listening to this soundtrack so much.

[Strangelove]

Man, people on the innernet are taking this ME3 bashing to almost another level. Theyre taking it personal or something. Like someone raped their grandma or something.

[Vargras]

  On 2/16/2012 at 3:09 AM, Strangelove said:

Man, people on the innernet are taking this ME3 bashing to almost another level. Theyre taking it personal or something. Like someone raped their grandma or something.

 

I had some guy rant and rave in an IRC the other day about how ME3 was another gay-sex simulator (in space!), and that it was all DA2's fault. Asked him if he had even played the demo, and not surprisingly, he said no.

 

People bitch and moan because ME2 and ME3 aren't like ME, but they're so busy looking back at it with nostalgia, that they can't even see how crappy ME was at times. The load times, the vehicle sections, the inventory system (an inventory system alone does not determine whether or not the game is a RPG, and ME's inventory system was AWFUL) - ME was good, but it certainly doesn't live up to the praise that most folks give it.

[Strangelove]

I dont understand that. Why would ME3 go back to being more like ME1 when ME2 was really successful with reviewers and most fans? ME1 certainly got praise in it's day, but ME2 was on a whole other level.

[deanb]

I don't think it's a case of "people hate on ME2, therefore they must think ME is the shit". People are well aware of the flaws of ME. The issue was ME2 did little to rectify the flaws. Shitty inventory system in ME? At least it had an inventory system. As I noted in my demo impressions, seems folks must have disliked the hacking mini-games of ME n ME2 cos they're now seemingly gone from ME3 (just hold space and it just "hacks" the doors for you). I'm hoping it's a case of old version not with the hacking in.

 

I'm playing XIII-2, and it's much better "here's the flaws of previous game, here's the fixes in the sequel" than ME2 was.

[Connorrrr]

Yeah, people get irritated with Bioware because they seem to have a knack for noticing the flaws in a system and so totally gutting that system from the sequel. As mentioned, the inventory system in ME 1 & the lack thereof in ME 2. Also the party equipment stuff in Dragon Age 2 and stuff like that.

 

In general I really enjoyed the ME 3 demo though. The running animations looked kinda funny but I'm hoping that's a case of pre-release code as it is just lazy animating. All in all it's a fine looking game, and the shooting feels much tighter and more enjoyable than ME 2's. Pity the demo didn't show too much story off, but I guess that's the point. I'm officially a little more excited for ME 3 than I was a few weeks ago.